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Stagflation is a toxic cocktail of inflation, stagnant or negative growth. The world is in the throes of morbid recession with the IMF fearing some countries like Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh, our SAARC neighbours, require bailouts. Bailouts are not cakewalks and are contingent on reform prescriptions tantamount to national subservience. Recession and inflation will affect the entire world. It will hit the poorest nations hard.
Against this background, world tourism is unlikely to rebound anytime soon. COV- ID-19 and Monkeypox are hovering above our heads. Hence, traders cannot afford to be sentimental and must proceed with the time and the financial circumstances. They should not rely on bank loans and credit for the rest of their lives and must emulate former President Donald Trump, who has offloaded his iconic hotel, Trump Tower, for $375 million.
I do not know if we have bankruptcy laws in the Republic to offer a comfortable exit from creditors. We carry out trades and commerce on individual risks and profit and should not expect financial institutions and governments to bankroll without interest and return of principle. Some hotels in the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal have been in the red for over two decades and have not fulfilled their loan obligation by dithering on payment. Worse still, the court issues verdicts favourable to the defaulter.
Nepali traders cannot expect loan handouts without concrete repayment plans. The banks should go by the rating of the traders while dispensing loans, and the rating companies should be of international standard.
Not the multiple audit reports that chime with the nursery rhyme - one for my master or shareholders, one for the Queen or banks and one for the little ones or the tax people. Multiple audit reports should be a crime.
While the essence of privatisation is divine, the country seems to have taken the wrong, crisscrossing paths comparable to its infrastructure. There is hardly any difference between Panchayat and Republic for trade licensing.
A former Congressi state minister recounted his woes of trying to get permission for his ancient medicine college from the staff swearing allegiance to Marxist-Leninists. He said he had to speak with Khanal.
A Rana born and brought up in India had bragged that he was trekking to an empathetic prime minister, Marich Man Singh Shrestha, for a travel agency license. I congratulated an Indian travel agent for roping in Dhirendra as their chairman, which the management used as an ace card. Nothing much has changed in the Republic.
The party cadres may be driving the private entities for their masters, the political Khalis.
A version of this article appears in the print on August 4, 2022 of The Himalayan Times.